Quote

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

I read with interest yesterday the news that another long-time Democratic congressman (from Tennessee) is calling it quits. He, like many of his colleagues, sees the writing on the wall.

Well, it appears that Virginia Representative Rick Boucher (D-9) might want to give retirement serious consideration as well. For the first time (ever?) our congressman's reelection chances here in the "Fightin' 9th," as determined by the Cook Political Report, are "likely" rather than a lock. ("Likely: These seats are not considered competitive at this point but have the potential to become engaged.") Cook has him up by 11 over ... nobody right now. But when - if - a viable candidate steps forward in this overwhelmingly Republican district, that gap could close overnight and Boucher might find himself having to go back to writing wills and perusing real estate contracts come November.

Banks and other lending institutions are in the business of ... shock! ... lending money. The more they lend (to creditworthy borrowers), the more they earn themselves. Loan officers' very incomes depend on it.

To normal Americans none of this is news.

One of the many problems we face as a nation right now is one in which banks aren't lending money. Particularly in the home mortgage arena. But also to small businesses and even larger commercial entities. For a number of reasons that relate largely to debt and equity.

That's right. The see-all, know-all spiritual leader of the environmentalist movement (and creator of the internet) has been caught telling fibs. Again:

Inconvenient truth for Al Gore as his North Pole sums don't add up
By Hannah Devlin, Ben Webster, Philippe Naughton, Times of London

There are many kinds of truth. Al Gore was poleaxed by an inconvenient one yesterday.

The former US Vice-President, who became an unlikely figurehead for the green movement after narrating the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, became entangled in a new climate change “spin” row.

Mr Gore, speaking at the Copenhagen climate change summit, stated the latest research showed that the Arctic could be completely ice-free in five years.

In his speech, Mr Gore told the conference: “These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest to Dr [Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75 per cent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years.”

However, the climatologist whose work Mr Gore was relying upon dropped the former Vice-President in the water with an icy blast.

“It’s unclear to me how this figure was arrived at,” Dr Maslowski said. “I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this.”

Mr Gore’s office later admitted that the 75 per cent figure was one used by Dr Maslowksi as a “ballpark figure” several years ago in a conversation with Mr Gore. [link]

That feeble excuse is probably a lie too. But there's no way to disprove the statement.

This from the man who wants us to believe the planet is warming (despite all evidence to the contrary).

I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing.

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1798

This was written, of course, eleven years after the Constitution was negotiated and launched. But it does reflect a (another) prescient, intuitive attitude that Jefferson had toward the government that his pals in Philadelphia had created. To twist a common phrase: The power to tax (and spend) is the power to destroy (the United States government).

This next fiscal year your government is going to spend $2 trillion that it won't have.

It was preposterous to think that Obama and his merry band of Democrats could, at the same time, provide health coverage to everyone, improve the quality of health care, and reduce its cost. It cannot happen. No how. No way.

Now the reports start coming in on the latest rendering of ObamaCare. It may be the biggest mess of them all:

Oops! Turns out Obama's cost-cutting health plan won't save a dime; cheaper to do nothing
By Andrew Malcolm, LA Times

It's probably just coincidental that bad numbers about President Obama's much-coveted healthcare legislation came out late last week when few people were paying attention.

This is the absolutely crucial healthcare reform plan that simply had to be drafted, discussed, debated, amended and passed before early August. It's supposed to cover millions more Americans and reduce the nation's soaring medical costs.

Turns out, not.

Here's a little chapter review before semester finals:

Analysts in the Obama administration's Health and Human Services Department reported Friday that the nation's $2.5-trillion annual healthcare tab will not shrink at all under the Democrats' legislative blueprint as being pushed by happy Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader in the Senate.

Instead, they said, the nation's medical costs will actually grow faster under the new bill than....

So there goes the cost-savings argument. And the cover-everyone plank. [link]

I know those who are handling this smelly bucket of slop would like, at this point, to declare some kind of victory and forget they ever got involved in it. But the more they stir it, the smellier it gets.